Drug trafficking, money laundering, and arms trading are interrelated international crimes.
Organizations involved include Chinese Triads, American Mafia, Sicilian Mafia, Italian Camorra, Russian and Eastern European gangs, Colombian cartels (Medellin, Cali), northern Mexican cartels (Culiacan, Sinoloa; Ciudad Juarez; Guadalajara), Japanese Yakuza, Pakistani dealers, and LA street gangs.
Cocaine is produced in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia.
Opium and heroin producers include Burma, China, India, Thailand, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, and Guatemala.
Nigeria and Ghana produce cannabis.
Money is laundered through banks and companies in the US, Austria, Switzerland, etc., and sent to accounts in Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay, Nigeria, etc.
Smuggling routes to the US pass through Panama or Mexico, or transfer points in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, the Bahamas, Haiti and Aruba.
European routes include Turkey, Bulgaria, Austria and Germany.
Spain is a cocaine gateway.
China and Thailand are heroin routes.
Drug transshipment points are Nigeria (via Nigerian "mules"), Russia and possibly the Ukraine.
Drug figures include Manuel Noriega, Frederik Luytjes, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, Jesus Zapata, Jorge Restrepo, Juan Sanchez-Perez, Leopoldo Piloto, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo.
Other smuggling brings Chinese into the US, Albanians into Italy, and cigarettes across the US-Canadian border.
Illicit arms have been sent from Israel to Colombia via Antigua.
In Africa, international crime syndicates deal in ivory, rhino horn, diamonds, and arms.
Wildlife poaching, linked to the drug and arms trade, occurs in Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Swaziland, and Mozambique.
Poachers have been Korean, Ethiopian, Zambian, Malawian, Tanzanian, and Somali.
